Barbara Craythorn

The slick cat-and-mouse thriller continues as Anderson Vaughan and Associates take on their biggest case yet.

When a government agency gets in touch to confirm it has lost track of an individual carrying blueprints for a deadly weapon, it gets Alice on the case. Meanwhile, Ben has a project of his own as he continues his pursuit of Princess Zara Al-Salim. However, Alice is playing to win and she’s about to prove to him that she’s always one step ahead We caught up with The Catch’s star Mireille Enos.

The Catch,

How would you describe The Catch?

It’s a very sexy caper, telling the story of love and betrayal between a private investigator and a con artist. It’s a style that we’ve seen in movies like The Thomas Crown Affair, Ocean’s Eleven, and Mr and Mrs Smith, but we’ve never seen it on television. It’s such a fun genre.

So the similarity in tone to classic caper films such as Catch Me If You Can, or, as you say, Ocean’s Eleven – that’s an intentional move on the part of the producers?

Absolutely. There’s a real levity to the style, and it’s been interesting figuring out the balance between playing the reality of the betrayal, not wanting to undersell that, and also doing homage to this wonderful style, which has such a playfulness to it.

Let’s talk a bit about your character, Alice Vaughan. From the outset you can tell she’s a lady you don’t want to mess with. What were your favourite aspects about playing her as a character?

What I love about her is that she is equal parts grace, fashion and toughness. She navigates between these aspects of her life with complete ease; she doesn’t think that one excludes the other. She is also so well rounded: she is beautiful, intelligent and believes in love. She fully embraces all of these different aspects in her life.

Before The Catch you were the lead in The Killing, which, as a very dark crime thriller is quite a different kettle of fish to this more light-hearted show. How were the two experiences different for you?

Well, in both The Killing and The Catch, I play very strong, driven women. In The Killing, Sarah is a broken person who is trying to make the best of her world. In The Catch, Alice is a whole person that has something terrible happen to her, so they’re coming at life from very different perspectives. The Killing had no beauty requirement at all. It was investigating the darkest underbelly of humanity, and it had a slow pace and a very gritty storytelling style. However, I always enjoy coming at my craft from different angles and reinventing myself, so when the opportunity to play this very polished, playful, woman came it was a delightful opportunity to mix it up.

One of the great things about The Catch that it’s full of really strong female characters, don’t you think?

I do. In the show, I think of Alice as having two different relationships, with Christopher Halland then with Valerie Anderson, who is her partner and best friend. Val is played beautifully by Rose Rollins; she is a dynamic powerhouse of a girl, and a wonderful foil for all of Alice’s toughness.

On that note, it doesn’t take long in the pilot episode for Alice to start kicking ass! Did you have to learn anything new for that, or attend any special training?

I trained in martial arts and I’m a double black belt in taekwondo, which is why Alicedoes these kind of stunts. Allan Heinberg decided that he wanted to put in to Alice’s character as many aspects of my own life as he could. When he wrote the new version of the pilot, there were some ABC executives that said they didn’t know if they could imagine Alice really behaving that way, and he said: “If Mireille Enos can do it, then Alice Vaughan can do it”.